The Summoning
by the ritual is about to begin
Summary: When an attempt to summon a demon goes horrifically awry, a stranger from the twenty-first century is pulled into a dark world of cults, madness, and murder. And upon crossing the path of the Earl Phantomhive , they realize they have more common ties than either could possibly imagine. /OC. No pairings. Rating may change./


It was a bright, glorious, unsuspecting morning in May when my life changed forever. You see, me and my fiance, Juliet Meyer, were on vacation to England. I'd never been there myself, but I had heard on several occasions that weather in those parts tended to be all grey skies and drizzling rain. You can imagine my delight when I stepped out onto the balcony of our hotel room and found the sun shining down at me from a clear blue sky.

Juliet was still in bed, face down in a mess of pillows and blankets by the time I was dressed and ready to go. The only reason I had let her sleep in was because we had spent the night before prowling clubs and getting absolutely sloshed. It was a lot of fun, but now it was her turn to wake up so we didn't end up wasting our whole day recovering from hangovers in our hotel room.

"Julie," I said, nudging her awake. "Get up, babe."

She opened her eyes blearily, stared at me for a moment and then rolled over to face the wall. "Why is it so bright in here?" she whined. "I've got a killer headache."

"We'll grab some breakfast before we head to London," I said. "It'll help."

Juliet rolled back over. "You can't seriously expect that to work," she groaned. "Please just let me stay in bed today."

I didn't mean to whine, but it happened anyway. "But Julie!"

"We can meet up later, do something fun," she continued. "I promise."

I sat on the edge of the bed, contemplating this. Giving a glance toward the sunny skies outside the window I realized there was no way I was going to stay indoors. That settled it.

"If you're really sure," I agreed. "I'm going to go check out the local shops or something. Call me if you need anything, okay?"

"Sounds good," Juliet mumbled. "Be safe."

"Love you."

"You, too."

And with that, I grabbed my purse from the side table and was gone.

...

A group of men in heavy, blood red robes stood in a circle in the smoking ruins of Saint Ramsay's cathedral. The tallest of them, this one clad in black, stood on the staircase several feet above the others. In his hands was an enormous leather-bound book, much resembling a Bible if not for the sinister, ram-headed beast etched on the cover.

"Men!" the black-cloaked fellow, their obvious leader, called out in a booming voice. "We are gathered here today to summon the unholy! With these instruments-" he raised both the book and a gleaming silver dagger up high, "-a demon will be in our service! We shall have whatever we desire, in the name of our dark lord!"

The men in red robes said nothing, but fell to their knees in a kneel and folded their hands in silent prayer. Their leader laid the book down, kneeling before it, and opened the cover to a drawing of a laughing demon surrounded by flames. Drawing the dagger deeply across his own palm, he allowed his blood to fall freely over the page. "Indeed," he uttered, breathless in awe. "It is done."

For several seconds, nothing happened. And then an echo of clanging bells rang out, coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. Their leader rose to his feet as a massive, swirling vortex appeared in the center of the room. The boundaries of realms were being broken. The red cloaked men- his followers- jumped to their feet in alarm and started desperately trying to flee, for they were being sucked down the black hole one by one. The leader did nothing but stand there in awe as the last of his men vanished through the hole.

There was the scent of brimstone and smoke heavy in the air. And then a deep voice bellowing from within it. "You summoned me?"

...

Even though me and Juliet were supposed to have gone to London, her hangover had put a bit of a damper on that idea, so I decided to just hang around Oxford and check out the shops. I thoroughly enjoyed the nice spring weather and spent a couple of hours prowling clothing boutiques and little cafes, buying a shirt here and a trinket there. By the time I checked the clock, it read two.

I stopped at a bench, dug my cell out of my mess of a purse and gave Juliet a call.

"Hey, Julie," I said. "Are you feeling any better?"

"A little," she replied blearily. She certainly didn't _sound _better. "I've been in bed since you left, but my head has cleared up. You want to meet?"

"Don't worry about it, babe," I told her. "You can make up for it tomorrow. I don't want you feeling awful, now."

She said she understood, we exchanged our goodbyes, and hung up. I stuffed my phone back in my bag and glanced around, unsure of what to do next. I had already been to most of the places around here and was toying with the idea of heading back to the hotel when a storefront across the street caught my eye.

In elegant, smooth handwriting, the words "Unique Antiques" were written. The background was purple and dotted with stars. The words themselves were silver. With nothing else to do, I crossed the street and entered the building. It was dark inside, smelling thickly of incense, with some weird New Age-ish soundtrack made up of chiming bells and the sounds of nature filling the room. A bored looking young man dressed to the nines sat behind the counter, staring at his phone. I said hello, but he either didn't hear me or didn't care. I bet on the latter.

I browsed the shelves for a short while and came to the conclusion that yes, the store definitely lived up to its name. There were chunks of crystal for sale, creepy little monkey paws, and hell, even what was proudly labeled as a 'shrunken head' in one of the display cases. As you might imagine, I didn't give that one too much attention and found my way to the second floor which was absolutely _loaded _with old books. Being a massive book nerd, I was delighted and started shuffling through the many boxes and shelves that lined the walls.

As I neared the end of my search, I came upon an enormous, dusty old book bound in something expensive. Leather, maybe. There had once been something on the cover, but it looked as though it had been scratched into an unintelligible state. Curiosity rushed through me, and without so much as another thought I threw open the cover...

...And found myself standing in the center of an unfamiliar room, charred black. Windows were shattered. Pieces of the roof were missing, held in place only by ancient wooden rafters, themselves looking rather unstable. The smell of smoke overwhelmed my senses. And the floor and walls were dyed red with blood.


End file.
